The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In the pharmaceutical industry, it is standard practice to package large package inserts, also called brochures, inside a folding box or cylindrical container together with a packaged or bottled active ingredient.
Various methods and devices for doing this are known. In a first method, the brochures are folded by a folding device and sent directly to the packaging process.
In a second method, the brochures are delivered prepackaged in so-called trays. The brochures must be taken out of, or unpacked from, the delivered trays before they can be sent to the packaging process. The unpacked brochures or the brochures taken from the tray are usually supplied to a storage shaft or magazine, in which the brochures are initially stored, and from which they are then integrated into the packaging process for the pharmaceutical article.
The trays can be emptied in various ways. A first possibility is to empty them manually, which necessarily encounters a limit with respect to throughput.
Semi-automatic transfer devices are also known, in which the trays are supplied manually and the brochures removed automatically from the trays. The disadvantages of these devices are that they occupy a great deal of space and require a large amount of manual work.